Ready for their close-up

Junior Chris Martens and the cast and crew of “Unplugged” arrived at Skinquake on East Sixth Street on Sunday to film their short for the second annual IU Campus MovieFest. As the cast ran through lines and the camera equipment was set up, the director frantically searched through his bags.

“Where is the shirt?” Martens said to his cast and crew.

They exchanged puzzled glances but no one had the answer. The missing black shirt brought production to a standstill.

After realizing he left the shirt at home, Martens rushed off to get it, determined to avoid a continuity error within his film.

Forgetting costume pieces is just one of the problems Martens and students faced as they filmed movies this past week.

CMF is a competition in which teams of two or more made five-minute short films that are then judged and awarded prizes. Every year, teams around the nation are given a laptop, digital camcorder, cell phone, training and support for the contest.

Martens returned with the all-important black shirt in hand. Junior Gabe Willey, the lead actor, quickly put it on.

With the equipment ready to go, the cast got in place, everyone waiting on Martens to say the magic word. He framed the scene between his thumb and index fingers, visualizing how it will look on film. The director then joined senior Austin Hart, his director of photography, behind the camera. Everyone waited.

“Action,” Martens shouted.

Take one

The cast ran through a scene in which Willey’s character, Jake, and junior Emily Harder’s character, Chelsea, go to a tattoo parlor looking for information about the person who robbed them earlier in the film. After the take, Martens directed his actors and crew.

“Run through your lines again,” Martens said.

“I know my lines,” Willey said back.

He said he felt confident he was prepared.

“I need to fix audio,” Hart said.

The sounds of the tattoo parlor, the buzzing of tattoo needles and music playing in the background made it hard for Hart to pick up dialog. Willey, Harder and sophomore Ross Schneider, who portrays the tattoo parlor clerk, ran through their lines a few times. Hart signaled to Martens he was ready for another go.

Take three

Action.

They ran the same scene once again. Martens stopped, wanting to discuss the kiss between Harder and Willey.

“So should I kiss his cheek?” Harder said.

“We’ll try the cheek kiss to see how it looks,” Martens said.

“I think the kiss needs some tongue,” Willey replied.

Take five

Action.

The take went smoothly. Martens said he was happy with the shot and the rest of the crew echoed his sentiments. With another scene finished, they moved one step closer to finishing filming. From there it fell to Martens, with some help of others, to edit the film.

The repetition of scenes until they are perfect is a large part of the filmmaking process. Martens said he will spend about 40 hours on the five-minute movie. The scene in the tattoo parlor is only 30 seconds long, but the crew shot 10 minutes of footage. Martens said he likes having a lot of footage to choose from when he edits, which is a time-consuming process.

“All this doesn’t matter if the editing isn’t done well,” Willey said.

Martens said he will spend 12 hours editing the film into its final cut. Martens said he does it all for his films — writes the script, directs, produces and edits. While the editing is tedious, he said producing presents the most challenges.

“Very few people want to produce,” Martens said.

The producer’s duties, Martens said, include casting, involving as many people as possible and finding locations. Martens spent three weeks working with Skinquake to finalize the filming plan. He said the size of his cast and crew is between 20 and 30 people.

That’s a wrap

The shoot moved outside — it was time to film the last scene for the day. This time, instead of the sounds of a tattoo parlor, motorcycles randomly interrupted takes. The last scene that needed to be filmed occurs after Chelsea and Jake leave the tattoo parlor to go to a thrift store.

There are a few problems with lighting outside, Hart said. The sunlight washed everything out on film. After taking a few seconds to think, they decided Willey and Harder should stand under the awning to get shade on their faces. After a few takes, Martens said the three words that excited everyone to no end.

“That’s a wrap.”

But while everyone briefly celebrated the end of filming, Martens’ work was far from over. He needed to return home and begin editing the film — it was already after 3 p.m. and the film needed to be submitted to CMF by 6 p.m. Monday.

Martens and the rest of the CMF teams have been grinding away at their films all week.

“No one’s sleeping,” Martens said. “Everyone is shooting all day and editing all night.”
But the rewards are worth it, Martens said. Last year, Martens’ film “The Whistler” won the wild-card award, given to the best movie that doesn’t fit into one of the three main categories: picture, comedy and drama.

But even more important than winning, Martens said, is the experience. Martens built his own major — film directing and producing — and knows the experience from CMF will help him in the future.

“It is a good learning experience, working on a high intensity production,” Martens said. “It’s also fun.”

Watch Marten's winning video from 2009, "The Whistler."